Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Me: It’s not supposed. It’s happening. Can you get off then?
Damian: Sugar Tits, I can get off any time with a snap of a finger. Just show me some of that pilot porn and I will prove it.
Me: Gag!
Estefania: They make pilot porn?
Damian: Of course they do! Let me send you the link!
Me: Do not send her the link!
Estefania: I want the link!
Me: I’m telling Kyle!
Kyle: This is a group text. Unfortunately.
Damian: He’s frowning at his desk. I’m watching him frown. He’s jealous of Estefania seeing the big pilot dicks.
Estefania: Kyle’s dick is the biggest.
Damian: Dammit, female! Now I need to see it. Kyle, as your boss, I demand to compare your peen to the pilot porn peens.
Kyle: I’m muting this conversation now.
Me: Me too.
Damian: You can’t mute me though. I’m on my way to your desk!
“You’re smiling.”
I jolt from my texting to find David is no longer in my doorway and it’s Daddy instead. He looks relaxed and happy. Mona is good for him.
“Damian,” I tell him as though it explains it all.
He laughs because over the past couple of weeks, he’s gotten to know the flamboyant reality TV star. “Oh, Damian. What now?”
“You do not want to know. Trust me. What’s up?”
“Let’s go to lunch, baby girl.”
Without hesitation, I shove my phone in my purse and then walk over to my dad. We chatter about nonsense all the way out of the building. Rather than going to one of our cars, we walk to our favorite pizza place. Once we’ve ordered and are sipping on our beers, Daddy smiles at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Just observing you.”
“Not creepy at all.”
He laughs. “You’re a brat.”
I stick my tongue out at him.
“You’re not happy,” he says, his smile falling. “And it kills me.”
I frown. “Of course I’m happy.”
“With me and our company, yes. With your new friends, yes. But…”
Camilo.
My throat aches and I swallow, fighting tears. “But nothing. I’m happy.”
“Do you love David?”
His question throws me off. “W-What? No.”
“Good,” he says with a chuckle.
“He’s your best friend.”
“He’s also a manwhore. And old like me. Not good enough for my baby girl.”
“Daddy…”
“I told him that too,” he tells me, smirking. “When I saw him flirting with a waitress not hours after he asked for my blessing to date you, I walked right over to him and punched him.”
My eyes bug out of my head trying to imagine this. “He told me you punched him, though his story varies some. I still can’t believe it.”
“Believe it and my story is the correct one.”
“You punched him because he said he was going to date me and you gave him your blessing, but then he flirted with another woman?”
Daddy scoffs. “I didn’t give my blessing. I told him no.”
“Daddy…”
“I’ve been friends with the man forever. I’d be stupid to not know how much you idolized him. But, as your father, I wasn’t about to let him ruin everything by dating you. You deserve more.”
“Maybe I deserve him,” I argue. “We’ve known each other forever. There’s history there.”
“You need Camilo.”
His words are a punch to my stomach. “I was with him for less than two weeks. I don’t need him. We were a fling.” The lie is sour on my tongue.
Daddy sees through it. Fatherly senses and all.
“Did you know I fell in love with your mother in three days?”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did. I was in town for work, stopped into a bookstore to grab a coffee and a few moments of peace, and saw the most beautiful girl in the world.”
“Mom worked in a bookstore?”
“Focus, child,” Daddy teases. “There she was with her messy hair and her wide smile looking so pretty I couldn’t look away. I walked right over to her and asked her out.”
“And she said yes?”
“She told me she had to work and she couldn’t just leave.”
“You tried to make her leave?”
“It was destiny and I wasn’t about to wait for it.”
“So what happened?”
“I had to wait six long hours for it. Sat in the bookstore drinking coffee after coffee, unable to look away from her. When her shift ended, she finally gave in. I took her to dinner and…” He grins and shakes his head. “The details of the rest of the night are ours, but just know I fell madly in love with her. I couldn’t get enough of her. Within months, she was pregnant. Before you entered the world, I made her a Reid. I made her mine.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“I want that one day.”
“You’ll have it.”
“With someone like David?”
“With Camilo.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”
“A dad knows these things.”
Forcing a smile, I shrug. “We’ll see. So how is the Wexler account coming along?”
Daddy reaches across the table and takes my hands. “It’s time, baby girl.”
“Time for what?”
“To cut the strings.”
“Cut what strings?”
“The ones that have you tethered to me. You’re wasting away here, unhappy, when you could be out there. I’m cutting you loose and I want you to fly out of here. Don’t just see what’s out there in our big, bad world, but find what you truly love. Harness it and keep it. It’s time to free yourself from your dad’s side and live your own life.”